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Right up everybody’s alley
Mallard Cove’s home hole is the king of risk/reward golf.
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From the tee box of your choice, the myriad options of the 18th hole at Mallard Cove GC are obvious: Go left and skirt most of the trouble, or shoot for the |
Hurricane Rita knocked the regulars at Mallard Cove Golf Club in Lake Charles, La., back a step or two, but they quickly shook it off. Not to diminish a killer storm, but heck, the bunch at MCGC knows all about challenges. They have to play their 18th hole every round.
Mallard Cove’s home hole, GCM’s Unique Hole this month, is visually intimidating to the conservative player and at the same time appealing to the bold swinger. It’s also a challenge to the public course’s young superintendent, Josh Hicks, who must maintain the 18th’s notorious “look” and also keep it playable for golfers of all abilities.
“The hole has determined three of the last five city championships. It’s a true risk/reward hole,” says Hicks.
Windy welcome
Hicks came to MCGC as a rookie superintendent in September 2005 and wondered what he’d gotten himself into from the start. He arrived on the Monday after Rita clobbered the southwestern half of Louisiana that Hurricane Katrina missed a month earlier.
“It was a rude awakening to Mallard Cove. I got here to just an absolute mess,” he says of the storm that caused marginal flooding at the course because of its location — 20-some miles inland on the grounds of an old Air Force base — but laid waste to nearly 350 trees on the property and destroyed the clubhouse.
“We had wind issues, but we survived a lot better than some of the other courses in the area that were near the brackish water,” Hicks adds.
Tif love
Actually, the five-year GCSAA member already knew he had quite a chore on his hands at MCGC before Rita hit. Designed by golf course architect Art Wall in 1974, with the first nine holes opening two years later and the second nine two years after that, Mallard Cove was subsequently renovated in 2001 by designer Kevin Tucker. The project included new tees, bunkers and rebuilt greens grassed with TifEagle bermudagrass.
It was the latter that led to Hicks — raw but turf-wise — being hired four years later to salvage some rapidly deteriorating putting surfaces.
“I kind of took this over as a reclamation project, as it was,” he says. “There were some pretty severe issues with black layer and other maintenance problems with the TifEagle. It was my first head superintendent’s job. I took it on because I saw it as a place where I could get some experience and do some good.”
Hicks implemented a strong fertility program and an extensive aerification regime that included six punches in 2006 and six more scheduled this year. Plus, the greens are verticut after each aerification.
Today Mallard Cove is testament to hard work as it has successfully rebounded from a devastating storm and ailing greens turf. Hicks notes that the past year has been a good one, with nearly 40,000 rounds played, a return to a full slate of tournaments and events, a rekindled men’s association 450 members strong and a lot of happy golfers.
“It’s one of those courses where you see a lot of the same people every day and you make friends,” he says. “It’s nice to see smiling faces again. They’ve been very appreciative.”
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Looking back from the green complex down the fairway, the shot that made Mallard Cove’s home hole famous cleared the tree line on the left, avoided bunkers and water and wound up 15 feet from the cup. The tee shot, by long drive champion Brian Pavlet in 2000, was estimated at 390 yards. For good measure, he made the putt for a double eagle, a feat featured in Golf Digest. |
Gambler’s delight
In the meantime, there’s No. 18. Originally the ninth hole in Wall’s layout until the second nine was finished and their sequence reversed, it’s a formidable par-5 dogleg right that plays at 563 yards from the back tees with three other tee options, including the most-used markers at 532 yards. Additional features include several bunkers, fairway and greenside, a forest of trees and two ponds with about 1,500 yards of shoreline in play.
The hole is all about the panorama of options it offers from the tee. There’s the conservative route, which is to play up the left side, which is also the longest route by far. The popular choice among braver souls is right-center, but that’s also where the drive must either clear a pond to reach midway up the fairway — hopefully, between well-placed bunkers, or land safely on a narrow peninsula with water on three sides.
The third option requires much more brawn than bravery. There, long hitters can opt to lop off a lot of yardage by driving over a line of trees that stretch down the right side from the tee to the dogleg’s corner. The hit must not only carry the forest, but also a thin ribbon of the aforementioned pond that reaches almost to the green complex. A second pond fronts the left side of the green complex.
The long knocker and Shine
That latter option gained considerable fame six years ago during an Optimist celebrity tournament when Brian Pavlet, a former National Long Drive Champion, chose to cut the dogleg big time. He crushed it an estimated 390 yards as the crow flies to the green and sank a 15-foot putt for one of the game’s real rarities, a double eagle.
Pavlet’s feat was featured in a 2000 issue of Golf Digest. He actually was more proud of his touch with the flat stick than the drive. “It broke a good three feet. I think the putt was the best part,” he was quoted in the magazine.
And then there are the mere mortals.
“If you take the conservative route, you’ll have a long second shot to lay up to a semi-long third shot,” Hicks points out. “That route is called Shine’s Alley after the first Mallard Cove men’s association president, Shine Flournoy. They say he chose to play down the left-hand side every day.”
Pavlet got all the ink, but Flournoy — who also has a local tournament named after him — has lasting notoriety, a sign designating the way to his more prudent approach to playing No. 18.
19th hole conversation piece
Hicks says maintenance of the hole is mostly standard for 419 bermuda tees, fairways and rough. The challenges mostly involve mowing the grass. The multiple fairway landing areas have to be distinctly cut just right for visual purposes from the tee. Mowing and trimming vegetation on more than a thousand yards of sloping water frontage is tedious, as well. One touch he’s added that’s popular among players is letting rough grow along the edges of the turtleback-shaped peninsula landing area.
“It’s a great finishing hole and it’s a fun hole because there are so many ways to play it and so many things that can happen,” Hicks says. “It’s usually what everyone’s talking about when they finish their round.”
Editor’s Note
Does your golf course have a hole that is unique above all the others in playability, especially from the standpoint of maintenance? If so, GCM would like to feature it in a future issue. Contact senior staff writer Terry Ostmeyer at 970-577-0346 or by e-mail at tostmeyer@gcsaa.org.
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